Cecilia Zabala and Eugene Friesen at Next Stage

PUTNEY, VT— 1/12/2023 — Next Stage Arts Project presents an evening of global music with Cecilia Zabala and Eugene Friesen at Next Stage on Saturday, February 11 at 7:30 pm.

Cecilia Zabala of Buenos Aires, Argentina is a rising star on the global music scene. With 10 CDs and close to 20 years international touring experience to her credit, Zabala’s music embodies the deep soul of the acoustic guitar, from its Iberian and North African roots, to its versatility as a worldwide voice of modern musical expression.

Cecilia Zabala’s distinction as a performing artist is multi-dimensional. From a technical perspective, she is a master singer and instrumentalist, conservatory trained, and a respected guitar instructor in the cosmopolitan center of Buenos Aires. But her musical vision is far from staid. Her music bridges genres from the European classical guitar tradition to Brazilian bossa nova and MPB, from Chilean Nuevo Cancion and its Argentine relative, Nuevo Cancionero, to global jazz. Her music combines many elements of global folkloric music, in a synthesis that bridges so many styles and genres that it can fairly be described as “sui generis,” or without comparison. In one respect, the essence of her artistic identity is as a singer songwriter, but with a poetic rather than narrative character that seems distinctly South American. Her music is dreamlike, and steeped in the deep soul of her native Argentina, and by extension, Spain. In performance, whether solo or with an ensemble, Zabala is mesmerizing, from start to finish. As an instrumentalist, her performances are hypnotic. As a singer and presenter, she’s both seductive, and a bit of a sorceress, or as they say in Argentina, a “bruja.”


January Thaw

This is all from memory and after 45+ years it is not all that good but:

It was January 1976, and I was on Christmas break from VTC at my parent’s house here in Brattleboro.  I drove an old Dodge Dart and was able to get it started on cold mornings by putting a drop light under the hood overnight to keep the battery warm.  During the first week or two of January we went for a spell of 4 or 5 days with the daytime high temperature staying below zero.  I think it was 5 days.  I remember this because my friend Mark was living in Putney and called me each morning for help to get his car started. Each morning I would start my car, drive to Putney and jump start his car.  I think an old VW Beatle.


BCTV Schedule – Week of January 9, 2023

Sunday, January 8, 2023

12:00 am The David Pakman Show – The David Pakman Show – Weekly Broadcast

1:00 am Energy Week with George Harvey – This Week’s Energy News

2:05 am Green Mountain Care Board – 12/14/22

Monday, January 9, 2023

5:05 am VT Legislative Summit – Child Care and Paid Leave (12/8/22)

6:30 am Brattleboro Selectboard – Brattleboro SB Mtg 12/21/22

10:30 am Cannabis Control Board – December 21, 2022


Balla Kouyaté and Mike Block at Next Stage on February 5th

Next Stage Arts presents a concert with Malian balafon player and singer Balla Kouyaté and American cellist, singer, and composer Mike Block, on Sunday, February 5 at 4:00 pm. Composer, kora player, percussionist and vocalist John Hughes opens.

Balla Kouyaté and Mike Block have been collaborating for over a decade, bonding over their shared interest in music from across the world, and their commitment to innovating on their instruments. Balla Kouyate, a balafon player and singer coming out of the Djeli tradition of Mali, was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship from the NEA. Mike Block is an American cellist/singer/composer, and a Grammy Award-winning musician with the Silk Road Ensemble originally trained in Western Classical music.


WSESU Board Meeting Agenda and Minutes

Discussion of Budget. Highlights:
a. “Budget season” is misnomer since budget development is year-long process and Board members always have a fiduciary responsibility with every decision made. Steps taken today are not set in stone. Goal is always what’s best for our students.

b. Review of same budget doc presented last week showing a $31,253,290 m budget for SU down 3.2% from last year


WSESD Finance Committee Meeting Agenda and Minutes

WSESD CFO Frank Rucker shared and reviewed a document: “Windham Southeast School District: FY24 Proposed Budget Summary.” He noted this document is on the website, and he will distribute copies to all WSESD Board members at their meeting tonight. Mr. Rucker also distributed a document, “WSESD FY24 Budget Detail,” to attendees, and indicated he had already emailed it to Board members. Highlights of Mr. Rucker’s budget presentation included:

• The total “general operating expenditures” portion of the proposed budget is $62,944,634, which reflects an increase of 3.2% over the previous year’s budget.


BCTV Schedules- Week of January 4, 2023

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

4:32 pm Waterbury Public Library – The Honeybee Steelband 10/8/22

5:50 pm Brattleboro Literary Festival – Nancy Rubin Stuart

6:30 pm Vermontitude – Unpacking AP Triton 12/27/22

7:00 pm Democracy Now! – Democracy Now! Daily Broadcast


Book Recommendation: Homeless Anything Helps

In case you have not already come across it yet, a book on the subject of homelessness to consider obtaining and reading is:

“Homeless Anything Helps” by Vermont author Matthew Vernon Whalan; An Oral History (2021; Hard Times Review Press; paperback):


Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem at Next Stage

Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present New England’s acclaimed folk/roots quartet Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem at Next Stage on Sunday, January 22 at 4:00 pm.

Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem feature 4-part vocal harmonies, indelible songs, fiddle, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, and a homemade percussion kit of cardboard boxes, tin cans, caulk tubes, packing-tape tambourines, bottle-cap rattles, Mongolian jaw harps, and a vinyl suitcase. Over the past 20 years, the quartet has toured its uplifting, healing performances to concert halls, festivals, and residency engagements across North America, and has released seven CDs on Signature Sounds. From the Newport Folk Festival to California World Music Festival and beyond, this band’s steadfast brew of wit, camaraderie, and musicality leaves audiences everywhere humming and hopeful, spirits renewed.


Vermont Public Disconnect Is Quite Obvious

In case it is of interest, this is a letter to the editor (LTE) of mine submitted to vtdigger this morning in response to a recently published LTE regarding the name of “Vermont Public” written by Paul Stone (https://vtdigger.org/letters_to_editor/please-change-the-new-vermont-public-name/), fyi:

Vermont Public Disconnect Is Quite Obvious:

Since the merger between Vermont PBS and VPR and the subsequent name change, because it most definitely describes and means nothing whatsoever, I have been referring to the organization as “Vermont Public Whatever.”


Antje Duvekot and The Sea The Sea at Next Stage

Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present an evening of contemporary folk music with Antje Duvekot and The Sea The Sea at Next Stage on Saturday, January 14 at 7:30 pm.

Antje Duvekot is a German-born, American-raised singer/songwriter whose songs have been critically praised for their hard-won wisdom, dark-eyed realism, and street-smart romanticism. Her bicultural upbringing and relative newness to English have helped shape her unique way with a song, giving her a startlingly original poetic palette. They are the keys to the powerful, even revolutionary, empathy that informs everything she writes. She has won some of the top songwriting awards including the Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition, the Kerrville Folk Festival Best New Folk Award and the Boston Music Award for Outstanding Folk Act.


BCTV Schedules Week of December 19, 2022

BCTV Channel 1079 schedule for the week of 12/19/22

Monday, December 19, 2022

12:30 pm Townshend Selectboard – Townshend SB Mtg 12/13/22
1:05 pm Brattleboro Development Review Board – Brattleboro DRB Mtg 11/16/22
2:00 pm Brattleboro Planning Commission – Brattleboro PC Mtg 12/5/22
4:00 pm Putney Selectboard – Putney SB Mtg 12/14/22
6:00 pm Brattleboro Selectboard – Brattleboro SB Special Mtg 12/13/22


Good Old Saint Nick

Saint Nicholas of Myra was a Christian bishop from Myra in Asia Minor (modern-day Demre, Turkey) around 300 AD.

Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is known as Nicholas the Wonderworker. His legendary habit of secret gift-giving gave rise to the traditional model of Santa Claus (Sant Niklaas or Sinterklaas)